Review of XLR8R TV

Introduce a bit of edge to your regular music line-up with some help from XLR8R TV, which hosts weekly interviews, live performances, and behind the scenes footage of bands from the fringe. The site, which launched in March 2007, was created as a supplement to XLR8R magazine, a music lifestyle editorial started by publisher Andrew Smith in Seattle in 1993. Smith is now the executive producer of the show.

Readers of XLR8R can visit the television spin-off to accelerate their knowledge of music and culture, and soak up all the information they want on the artists and events featured within the pages of the magazine. The channel is hosted by video production company Revision3 which supports several other web-based television programs including music centered notMTV, technology obsessed, Diggnation, and comic crazed, iFanboy.

Like notMTV (Tilzy.TV page), XLR8R features many independent artists, but focuses specifically on  the electronic, hip-hop, indie rock, and reggae genres.  The site draws on integrated art forms to reveal the influence and evolution of music as a lifestyle. 

To this end, in episode 18, Andrew Smith, interviews visual artist Mario Martinez, who uses music, graffiti, and science fiction to shape his outer-worldly psychedelic paintings. On another show, apocalyptic Brit-pop band, Klaxons discuss their fear of dogs, and conjecture about the end of the world. Major Detroit-based hip-hop producer, Black Milk, gives viewers an inside scoop on an upcoming Sean Price, Guilty Simpson collaboration, in Episode 14.

Most artists interviews also include footage from live performances. The videos which are typically 3-10 minutes in length are top-notch, in terms of graphics, content, and production-quality, not to mention jam-packed with ‘outside the box’ information. Content is easily accessible, listed by episode and accompanied by a brief synopsis that peaks the interest even of those unfamiliar with the subject or particular music genre.

Needlepoint and dance punks – an unlikely combination? Not according to Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus, band members of Adult, an electro-punk duo, who can weave in ways that would make any grandmother proud. Watch their interview on XLR8R and get some tips on how to be a well-rounded individual.